Over the past several weeks, obtaining food in Gaza has been more than difficult — it has been deadly.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while heading toward aid sites, many of them by Israeli forces. Many others have serious malnutrition, which Gazan health officials say has caused scores of deaths.
According to Israel’s own data, less food is going into Gaza now than during most other times in the war, when deliveries were generally far below what aid agencies said was necessary and people often went hungry.
How did it get so much worse?
After a total aid blockade, an Israeli plan created fewer and farther aid sites
In March, Israel imposed an aid blockade on Gaza in an effort to squeeze concessions from Hamas; it also said, without providing evidence, that the militant group was systematically stealing the supplies. That didn’t force the group to accept Israel’s terms, but it did cause widespread hunger among Gazans.
Amid growing international pressure, Israel established a new aid system in May in southern and central Gaza that would allow it greater control over aid deliveries.
Much of the aid used to go in through a system coordinated by the United Nations, which distributed it at hundreds of sites across the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s new system, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (G.H.F.), had just four sites. At times, only one would be open per day. And none were in northern Gaza.
The result: Gazans would often have to walk for hours through a war zone to get food from the sites.
When Israel resumed allowing food into Gaza in late May, it also permitted the United Nations to bring in some aid, as well — albeit in a diminished role. Israel has blamed the U.N. for not bringing in more food, while the U.N. argues that Israel frequently denies or delays its requests to bring in convoys, among other challenges.
People are being asked to cross military lines
Israel wanted the new G.H.F. aid sites to be in zones controlled by the Israeli military. Israeli officials said that was the only way to ensure the food wouldn’t get into the hands of Hamas.
But that meant thousands of Palestinians would have to cross Israeli military lines to get a box of food from the distribution points.
The result has been deadly. More than 600 people have been killed while trying to reach the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, according to the Gazan health ministry. The G.H.F. has disputed reports of shootings at or around its sites, although they acknowledge the areas beyond their perimeter are still an active war zone.
Photos and videos near the sites have shown crowds of people in close proximity to Israeli tanks.
The military has used live ammunition
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli soldiers have used live fire near aid hubs as Gazans headed toward the sites. The Israeli military says its forces have opened fire to disperse crowds or as warning shots when people approached in what it says was a threatening manner.
An Israeli military official who briefed reporters later conceded that Israeli forces had killed at least some people, including with artillery shells, as huge crowds tried to reach the sites.
The official said they were isolated episodes and argued that the overall death toll was exaggerated. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to comply with military protocol.
Sites are open for very short, unpredictable amounts of time
Gazans have frequently found it hard to know when and how to get aid from the Israeli-backed sites, creating further chaos and confusion.
The new distribution points have opened with little warning and have closed almost immediately as food runs out. Hoping to secure a box of food, Palestinians began arriving hours in advance, waiting in the middle of the night for the sites to open.
In mid-June, the G.H.F. announced via Facebook only about a half-hour or less in advance that sites would open. The sites then closed less than 15 minutes later, with the G.H.F. saying the food had run out.
Opening and closing announcement times at the Saudi District G.H.F. site
People have tried to cut ahead in line, sometimes leaving the routes mandated by the G.H.F. At times, Israeli soldiers have opened fire when crowds of Palestinians approached them when the sites weren’t open, according to the Israeli military.
The safe routes to the sites have not always been clear. The Israeli military says it has since added signs in an effort to make sure Palestinians know where to go.
The foundation defends its record, saying that it has delivered more than one million boxes of aid at its sites to Gazans under challenging circumstances.
Sites don’t have the basic protections that aid organizations say should be standard
When the new Israeli-backed sites open generally for very short periods of time, Palestinians have often found themselves in a desperate race for food. Instead of forming an orderly line to receive aid, the strongest and fastest run as fast as they can to grab whatever’s lying on the ground. Many others have left empty-handed.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites don’t appear to have well-organized infrastructure or even shade. Footage from the scene suggests a flattened area with some fences surrounded by dirt barriers. In a rush to obtain food, people hurdle down the site’s steep barriers and climb over what appears to be barbed wire at the top of the fences.
Sometimes, the American security contractors at the sites have thrown tear gas grenades at people crowded into narrow, fenced-in lines with seemingly nowhere to go, footage shows. About 20 people were killed in a stampede at one of the sites in mid-July; the foundation claimed Hamas-linked instigators had started it.
The danger created more desperation
Doctors in Gaza are reporting spiraling rates of malnutrition. The World Food Program says more than one in three people aren’t eating for multiple days. Gaza health officials say severely malnourished children have died.
In addition to the new distribution system, the United Nations has been delivering aid in areas of Gaza where Israel allows it to operate. As global outrage grew over the past week, Israel paused its operations in parts of Gaza for several hours per day and designated secure routes for U.N. convoys.
But Palestinians say finding food remains incredibly difficult and dangerous. In recent days, hundreds of people have converged on U.N. convoys, desperate for food.
Videos from near aid trucks show crowds of men jostling for food.
Many Gazans are too old, too weak or too terrified to risk going to the aid sites. Instead, they pay astronomical prices for whatever food — much of it resold aid — reaches the enclave’s markets.
The cost is onerous for people already impoverished by 22 months of war and devastation. A kilogram of tomatoes can cost around $30, while a kilogram of sugar can cost more than $100, according to the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Airdrops of aid are unlikely to solve the problem
After growing international fury over the humanitarian crisis, the Israeli military announced on Saturday that it would revive airdrops of aid into Gazas.
Some countries, including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, have begun dropping boxes of aid.
Aid experts warn that airdrops are dangerous, expensive and insufficient to tackle the widening hunger crisis there. It costs many times as much as sending in an equivalent amount of aid through land crossings, which Israel controls.
The airdrops have at times included roughly 10 tons of supplies per drop. A single truck crossing the Gaza border can carry double that far more cheaply.
Last year, other countries stopped parachuting aid into Gaza after several people were killed by the airdrops. In other attempts, the aid has landed in Israel or out at sea.
“Airdrops alone are not the answer,” Britain’s foreign ministry wrote on social media on Wednesday. “Only trucks can deliver at the scale needed.”